Poetry. From EXODUS to Eliot's THE WASTE LAND the desert has been the site for spiritual quests that balance a deep mourning for the human condition against a longing for joy and transcendence. I see this same alternation in Kenny Fries's DESERT WALKING, where the American wilderness fosters the poet's quest, its non-human austerity tempered by the presence and solace of a beloved camerado in the tradition of Whitman -- Alfred Corn.